


time and time and time and

by WingedFlight



Category: 12 Monkeys (TV)
Genre: Gen, Post Season 3, Primaries, Time Travel, it's hard to tell a story in a straight line when you see all of time in spirals
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-27
Updated: 2017-05-27
Packaged: 2018-11-05 09:30:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 910
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11010675
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WingedFlight/pseuds/WingedFlight
Summary: The only thing at the end of all is another snake eating its tail.





	time and time and time and

 

 

+

Time is changing.

+

Some people say that at the end of all things, there is only death. They're wrong, though.

The only thing at the end is another snake eating its tail.

+

Can you see time's changes?

Never obvious, you know. That would be too easy. And time is never ever easy. Time is cunning and tricky and subtle. Some people say time resists change, but that's so untrue. Time just resists BIG change. You know, big boom wow death wow life wow everything DIFFERENT kind of change. Those kind of changes make time's head hurt.

But those small tiny shifts? Those are always happening, all the ha-ha time. Because time doesn't have a beginning or an end when you look at it from above, but it's not just a circle either. That would be too easy. And time is never ever easy.

+

I have always seen time.

But this time, I think I see.

+

In the beginning, there were primaries dotted across the centuries like a series of pins charting the course of an unsewn seam. Time has never been linear, but it was straighter then. Just a little bit less tangled.

(We kept it in order, you see. We kept it sane.)

But the thing is: when you have primaries thinking FOR time, you have primaries thinking THROUGH time. And our minds were linked which means we share thoughts and it'll be hard to know who thinks what, sometimes. Which ultimately means I don't think we ever knew who will first come up with the bright idea to build the Machine. Maybe that idea always existed. Maybe, for a crazy big idea like that, there is no _before_.

+

Once, there will be a time traveler that kills his own granddaddy.

It's okay, though. The guy was a dick.

+

NEWS FLASH:

TIME TRAVEL CAUSES PROBLEMS

more at 11

+

In the beginning, there was a scientist who wanted nothing more than to be great. She devoted herself to years and years of research until all the other scientists stopped calling her _brilliant_ and started calling her _obsessed_. And then, one day, all her hard work paid off.

She was a mother, this scientist. One of her children was a little baby girl. The other was a time machine.

+

_hey, baby baby girl_

_you're special, you know that?_

_you're a special baby girl_

_a special baby girl who tamed a swan_

_and floated down the river_

_right into my arms_

+

In the end, there will be a man that time forgot. He'll be angry, and he'll be grumpy, and he'll be a bit of an asshole but at least he'll be the good kind of asshole. 

Because this man, he doesn't really want much. In fact, he'll only want what any of us really want: to be remembered.

+ 

_Don't you........_

_forget about me_

+

THIS MESSAGE WILL SELF-DESTRUCT IN

+

12 is not a primary.

+

Once, there will be a time traveler whose son kills the world. 

It's okay, though. The world is a dick. 

+

In the beginning, there is a doctor who wants nothing more than to save the world. She knows that time has gotten itself into a bit of a pickle, you see. 

Because those primaries? They thought through time. And that scientist? She meddled with time. And then something slipped out of place. 

+ 

Here's a riddle: How do you fix a problem caused by the fixed points in time? 

+

Once upon an indeterminate date, a little otter was born. He was kind of exactly the opposite of a fixed point, because he was born in one time and raised in another and the only destiny he ever really had was to be the pinball in time's great flashy Machine. 

Once, he traveled backwards and fell in love with a doctor and lived happily ever after. 

Those were the good ole days. 

+ 

THIS TIMELINE WILL SELF DESTRUCT IN

+

Dear Diary,

Daddy is an asshole, and I don't know who I'd be if I wasn't the girl whose Mommy tried to drown her. I don't know who I'd be without time travel to save me.

Is this how normal people feel?

+

It's a peculiar type of family that's book-ended by two primaries. But I guess that's what you get for playing with time. 

+

How do you fix a problem caused by the fixed points?

Answer: Make a new point.

+

_conceived out of time in a_

_house of cedar and pine_

_in 1959_

+

In the end, there was a new point, a new primary. He saw through time like the rest of us, but he didn't SEE time like the rest of us. He was something different. Something better. 

(He was a dick.)

He saw the tangled mess that time had become and he thought maybe the best way to fix it was to give time a break. By which I mean: he thought he'd break time. 

Look, even the best of us make mistakes. 

+

Once, there will be a time traveler whose son saves the world. 

Surprising, that. (The time traveler is an asshole.)

+

Show me a paradox and I'll show you the world.

+

Where are you right now?

Somewhere safe. Somewhere warm.

Tucked in your mother's arms, looking into your mother's crazy eyes.

(Did you know one day you'll kill your granddaddy?)

I see you, Little Baby Otter Eyes.

(And guess what?)

+

The snake eats its tail and the end of all things is only the beginning.

+

Time is changing.

+

**Author's Note:**

> Once upon a time I wrote a story from Jennifer's point of view and I don't think my head will ever be the same help. 
> 
> Also, I didn't realize until I wrote this that both Cole and his son traveled back in time to fall in love with a doctor. So that's tears forever.


End file.
